Favorite Schools

Favorite Teams

Alabama

Change Region

comments

Huntsville to close 1960s municipal annex, weighing options for future of City Hall

Huntsville municipal annex rear view.jpg

The municipal annex, foreground, and City Hall as seen from the front steps of Huntsville Museum of Art. The three-story annex may be closed later this year to save on maintenance and utility costs. (Steve Doyle | sdoyle@al.com)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - Huntsville plans to close the marble-paneled municipal annex beside City Hall as part of a broader effort to save money on building maintenance and utilities.

City Administrator Rex Reynolds said he expects the annex - which houses the city's zoning enforcement, Operation Green Team and geographic information systems offices -- to start being phased out within six months. The 37 people who work there will be transferred to other buildings, he said.

The office shuffling may not stop with the annex.

Reynolds confirmed a rumor that city officials recently took a "real serious" look at buying the BB&T Building across from Huntsville Museum of Art. The high-rise office tower at the corner of Church Street and Williams Avenue is big enough to consolidate City Hall and several other scattered government offices, but Reynolds said the city was "unable to secure a deal" for it.

Huntsville and Madison County leaders have also had preliminary talks about possibly teaming up on a joint city-county administrative office, he said.

Rex Reynolds

"As the mayor has said, it's just something that we need to begin to look at some options," Reynolds said this week. "We've got to look at the future and what it takes to house our city government offices. The public also needs to have a say-so in this."

Mayor Tommy Battle is determined to reduce the city's office space by 3 percent this year - both to save tax dollars and bring more departments together under one roof for the convenience of the public.

That effort will apparently begin with the annex. Opened in 1964, the 45,218-square-foot structure originally housed both Huntsville police and fire headquarters. There was a fire station on the backside of the building facing Church Street and a jail on the third floor. However, the annex became expendable following construction of the metro jail on Wheeler Avenue and a new downtown public safety complex on Clinton Avenue.

"Anytime we can shut an entire facility down like that, it's just a huge savings as far as maintenance and utilities," said Reynolds.

He said Battle wants the planning department to come up with options for how to re-use the property. One thought, said Reynolds, is razing the annex to create more green space across from the art museum and Big Spring International Park.

View full sizeThe municipal annex, like City Hall across the plaza, opened in 1964. (Steve Doyle | sdoyle@al.com)

City Hall, like the annex, opened in 1964 - the same year The Beatles first performed on "The Ed Sullivan Show." It has eight floors and 61,500 square feet of space, but the skinny layout leaves little room for growth. And while the building appears in good shape as its 50th birthday nears, three heavy marble facade panels slid off and fell to the ground several years ago.

The city spent $75,000 on a covered wooden entrance to protect people coming and going from City Hall. Permanently replacing the marble panels is an $8 million job, said Reynolds.

"We've kept an eye on the panels and caulked them," Jeff Easter, the city's general services director, said Thursday. Those that appeared most in danger of falling were replaced by plywood painted to look like marble, he said.

City Councilman Bill Kling said he's against Huntsville spending millions on a new City Hall when "cosmetic improvements" might solve the problems.

A sloped roof that blends in with the building would look nicer than the wooden entryway, he said, and wrought iron would be a nice upgrade from the current safety fencing. Kling noted that City Hall underwent a major renovation in 1988 that included adding an eighth floor.

"I'd rather have City Hall be a Chevrolet instead of an expensive Cadillac," Kling said Tuesday. "It would be a lot simpler just to beautify the existing building and address the safety issues.

"Let's focus our energies on road resurfacing and getting a new low-cost airline into Huntsville."